Aerial View

Site Plan 1:1000Roofs not Shown

View From South Toward Helsinki Cathedral

1 Performance/Conference Hall2 Multipurpose Zone and Special Exhibitions3 Exhibition Pavilions for Individual Artists4 Stone Plinth for Permanent Collection5 Sculpture Gardens6 Rental Space for Cafes, Bars, etc., overlooking Sculpture Garden Musuem Offices Above, Services Below7 Entry Plaza and Vehicular Access to terminal Facilities to the North and South

Plan at Level 3.5 1:500

Plan at Level 8.5 1:500

NarrativeArea KeysSpecial Exhibition Building

Level 3.51. Main Entry2. Visitor Services/Ticketing3. Coat Check4. Flexible Exhibition space5. Stage for Special Use area

Level 8.56. Flexible Exhibition space7. Multipurpose zone on all three floors8. Bridge to Pavilion Wing

Level 13.59. Operable Door10. Flexible Exhibition space11. Open Exhibition (High Ceilings, natural light)

Programs and Events Building

Level 3.512. Dining13. Kitchen14. Restaurant15. Canopy

Level 8.516. Performance/Conference Hall17. Service areas

Pavilion Wing

Level 3.518. Flexible Exhibition Space for Permanent Collection

Level 8.519. Individual Pavilions for specific artists or works of art20. Optional Entry Point for Special occasions21. Interactive windows for partial views of gallery22. Sculpture gardens over service spaces below

Office Building

Level 3.523. Thruway for Harbor traffic24. Collections Storage25. Maintenance26. Shipping/Receiving27. Loading Area28. Mechanical Room29. Registrar/conservation30. Maintenance and operations

Level 8.531. Rentable retail space bars, cafes restaurants

It is not difficult to understand why some of the people of Helsinki would not welcome the idea of a Guggenheim museum in their town. Helsinki has been for many years a vital art community in its own right. A large signature building and the institution it houses may bring with it economic growth, international recognition, institutional and civic visibility, even fame, but it may be at the cost the creation of a foreign object that is overscaled, im-penetrable, isolated, and foreign to its context-an opaque fortress, however lightweight the material of its construction. The key to the museum’s success is to create an environment for art that is so woven into its context physically, culturally and spatially as to leave a void if it were to ever be removed.

Architecture cannot often determine pubic behavior, but it can create physical environ-ments that make human behavior possible, and a good design can provide a stage set that, given a sympathetic vision for the long term evolution of the Guggenheim, can break up the model of the monumental landmark and create a network in which the city and museum can interpenetrate and occupy each other.

The modern museum is by its nature a place of limited access and extreme security, and the type of porous boundary and easy public access that is urbanistically desirable would be operationally nightmarish. But if architecture cannot provide an openness of egress or a transparency of interaction, it can allow a view between the the abstract, isolated and otherworldly world of the museum and the everyday life of the harbor and city beyond, to allow the public pass through and interact with the museum without entering it.

The solution is to make a building that is itself a small city of small buildings that can be traversed and interacted with just as one interacts with the older parts of the city around it, while at the same time allowing the large institution to function within. The museum does not shut out or hide the life of the city around it, including the commercial activities of the harbor, which should be encouraged to thrive close up to the boundaries of the site.

The key to the design is thus these multiple locations of penetrations and transparency:

Commercial spaces: These are bars, cafes, coffee houses along Laivasillankatu Street overlooking the sculpture gardens.

Pavilions: Many of the pavilions will have windows at the top of the step allowing for views out of the interior to all or part of the interior allowing for views of part of the collec-tion without entering the museum. One night a week an individual pavilion might be open free independent of the remainder of the museum.

Pavilion steps facing the Plaza: Pedestals are provided for outdoor sculpture.

Sculpture Garden: This may have separate entries unrelated to the main museum entries. The garden is a linear space that can be subdivided by means of hedge walls on platforms that move along rails much like the moving partitions of a gallery. The spaces between pavilions and the pavilions thenselves allow for entry at any point along the green strip.

Space at the base of the grand staircase: A large gazed hanger type bifold door allows for a merging of this space with the plaza outside

Elevated pavilion at the entry plaza: This is an ideal outdoor space for a commissioned work.

Pavilion links: These transparent spaces allow for reconnection to the city as one traverses the museum.

Section at Special Exhibition Gallery Looking South 1:500

Section at Pavilion Looking North 1:500

View From Multipurpose Zone and Special Exhibitions Building South Toward Courtyard and Olympia Terminal

Construction Systems

The structure aspires to capture the sprit of Finnish tradition in architecture without imitating traditional forms. It is at the same time both primitive and classical, drawing on Finnish vernacular building systems and materials while acknowledging the classical understructure of much of Finnish architecture. It aspires to neither the archaic nor the modern but rather the timeless.

Granite Plinth Brick vaults supported by steel beams form the galleries for the smaller items in the permanent collection. Both the red granite stone of the plaza and the plinth draw on the traditional materials of not only Nordic tradition but also of nearby historic buildings. The roof structure and ceilings are formed of brick vaults spanning between steel beams with voids between the steel sections to provide space for ductwork, services and lighting tracks. Wall surfaces will vary depending on the parts of the permanent collection housed-plywood, fabric, gypsum board or even brick de-pending on the degree of character desired for each space.

Frame

Solid wood cluster columns bound with steel cable bands support weathering steel trusses. The heart of the proposal is that this is a wood building. It is not a building faced by wood siding or wood louvers or wood trellises. It is wood, but wood reinforced with steel. It employs the environmen-tal and safety advantages that are the result of wood used in mass. The type of beam varies between steel trusses, steel joists and wood beams, depending on the type of roof struc-ture required for lighting the individual art work below. The space above the granite base and below the wood floor provides space for utilities.

Wood WallsSolid square logs form the exterior walls. There is an interi-or facing of plywood or drywall to provide space for power and security wiring and insulation if necessary.Fire separation devices, if required, will be placed in the links between pavilions. Individuals roofs will vary depending on the art housed below to provide natural light, addition structural support or totally artificial lighting.

Interior WallsThe character of the interior spaces will vary consider-ably depending on the character ad nature of the work of art it is to house. Wall surfaces may be plywood, fabric, gypsum board or exposed logs depending on the degree of “abstraction,“ as opposed to material character, suitable for the work of art. Lighting will be fixed and specific to each work in color, intensity and location.

Complete Pavilion

Although each pavilion is unique they are variations on a type. A particular pavilion may or may not have windows, natural light, a view to the exterior or the opposite, complete isolation. Each will be designed to accommodate a specific work of art. It may be designed for a large-scale work by an artist that is deceased. It may be a new work that allows for a collaboration between artist and environ-ment. Each pavilion will be its own world, focused not on an era or a movement or a theme, but on a specific work or a specific artist.